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Research
EJTHRTourism European Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Recreation
271
RELIGIOUS TOURISM:
DEVOTION OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY?
Aida Maria Oliveira Carvalho
Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Portugal
ABSTRACT: Religious tourism can be understood as an activity in which people travel
ei-ther for worshipping purposes
a areas. The active participation of the Church is of utmost importance as far as the visitors are concerned. On one hand it should assure the maintenance of the places´ main functions and religious features. On the other it should prevent this type of activity to become related to mass tourism loosing therefore its essence. This case study focuses on the analysis of the -plemented by a practical study with individuals who participate in Nossa Senhora dos Remédios
th. 196 questionnaires were elaborated and completed in
order to understand the motivations that lie behind religious tourism. This analysis can add some valuable information to the people or institutions in charge of religious policies, when it comes to develop the most suitable strategies to the local context, so that the modern ap-proach of the monument coexists with its religious function in perfect harmony. Keywords: Devotion, Religious tourism, Sanctuary.
RESUMEN: El turismo religioso puede ser entendido como un tipo de actividad de viaje como una alternativa al turismo de masas, siendo una actividad dirigida a un segmento
espe -niendo por base las estadísticas nacionales, y se complementa con un estudio empírico sobre de setiembre. En una encuesta dirigida a 196 turistas se pretenden conocer las motivaciones -ligiosa. Palabras clave
RESUMO: O turismo religioso pode ser entendido como um tipo de atividade de viagem
-to como uma alternativa ao turismo de massas, sendo uma atividade dirigida a um segmen-to 1
-Palavras chave
DEFINITION OF THE STUDY AREA
second half of the eighteenth century, in the municipality of
Lamego, Viseu’s district, in a Baroque-Rococo style, in accordance
with the guidelines of Trent which called for the visual message of the buildings, surrounding and capturing the common spectators.
Illustration I - Shrine of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios
Source: Aida Carvalho/ Nuno Silva
ostentatious and instructive with several seventeenth/eighteenth centuries’ altarpieces and a panel of polychromous tiles. The chan-with the royal shield on the locks and the boarding supported by composite pilasters.
The sanctuary became a living space over which revolved much of the life of man/believer whose aspects of human life were strongly imbued with religious feeling, making it sometimes
di-The town of Lamego suffers, like the rural places in the inte-rior of our country, from the pathologies associated with the de-growing weakness is due essentially to the combination of several factors which by their action undermined the attractiveness of the territory thus generating migratory movements of local people in and outside the country. The agricultural past experiences have left their mark on the local heritage with the construction from terraces to large vineyards making it a beautiful landscape and one of the most reputable in the world, internationally recogni-zed in 2001 through the prize of World Heritage Site, awarded
by the
-tion (UNESCO).
Map I – Location
Source: Own elaboration, based on Geographic Information System GIS – Geographic Information System
The region has been witnessing an attempt to boost the eco-nomic base by diversifying sources of income through the resto-ration of traditional buildings to a subsequent conversion to
tou-rism. Tourism is pointed out according to the National Strategic Plan for Tourism (PENT 2007), as an engine of social, economic and environmental development, either at a national or regional level and has contributed to the development of regions and de-signed the Douro as a tourist destination as well as contributing to the (re) construction of some hotel equipment, especially units of Rural Tourism (TER).
THE SHRINE AND ITS AUDIENCE: TOURIST OR DEVOTEE?
The term Shrine, despite having boundless interpretations in the anthropological language is understood as a center of worship, a place guarded with attractiveness ability. This ability made the space unique and point of communication between the earthly and the heavenly worlds. According to (Rosendahl,1994) the power of spirituality that and religious faith, shelter and refuge for the believers. They were pre-in that the mountapre-in was seen as the closest popre-int on the sky, a sym-bolism of ascension.
The visit to the shrine is an important moment in the life of the believer and is expressed in the motivation behind the search for the -mises gives a religious and/or magic dimension to the journey serving as a stimulus on the part of believers and revealing the ability of the Se-nhora to listen and care for her believers in the hardships of their lives. In Portugal, the number of Marian invocations is high contrasting with the low number of Christological invocations (Lages 2000). This relationship means that the call of the Portuguese people is, in its as-pect, expressive and lively, deeply Marian. It will therefore be logical to think that the closer you consider people to their devotions, the greater -ging to a religious community can be determined by a set of factors containing several dimensions: one faith, one doctrinal body, a cult, an ethics of conduct and an experience in community. A religious person is one that formally integrates into her/his life all these dimensions in a coherent manner.
CASE STUDY
In our study we consider individuals who visited the shrine of
Nossa Senhora dos Remédios th, in 2007 and in 2009.
The sample consisted of 196 individuals.
The religious feast of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios is a regional reference, from the modern age, gaining prestige and mixing ele-ments of sacred nature and/or profane nature. The preservation of this religious festival requires a mixed organization and the existence of social groups interested in maintaining it. On the one hand, the Brotherhood of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios takes the responsibility for the organization of the religious festival, assisted by a Committee of brothers, on the other hand the civil festival is the responsibility of the municipality of Lamego. Each part is responsible for the festival’s program in order to attract the target audience.
In the last fortnight of August, until the eighth day of Sep-tember, the city remodels itself to greet its visitors in a contin-gent of up to ten times the number of locals. The highest point the patron saint, and at 4 p.m., with the output of the majestic Procession of the Triumph, from the Church of Wounds to the Church of Santa Cruz. The procession combines elements of the tradition with certain picturesque scenery and some folk bi-blical scenarios, creating a scene of ostentation in conjunction street shows trying to mobilize the public through concerts of music bands and folk dancing. In the city there is an apparatus in the decorations highlighting the spectacular apotheosis of light. It creates a cosmopolitan atmosphere, eager for distractions - a perfect marriage between the sacred and the profane worlds. It is the world of the ephemeral. The community awakens to a
di -mances and street animation also end with ending of the festival.
Overall characterization of the respondents
We begin by presenting some demographic and economic indicators that allow us to better understand the respondents. Thus, in demographic terms it behooves us to say that, roughly levels of individuals by gender, age and marital status. In terms of gender distribution, we see a greater participation of women, with about 56% of respondents compared to 44% of male parti-cipation. However, the preponderance of girls may be associated associate the logical and appropriate social rhythms of women with the Virgin. This observation was also made in part by other investigators (Santos 2001). These results can be viewed in the following illustrations - A and B:
Graph I - Levels of participation
Illustration A Illustration B
Source: Inquiry (2007-2009) Source: SANTOS, Maria da Graça Mouga
The graphs show that the Marian virgin devotees attract more related to this social group, sharing their interests - Women and
Marital status
that most people are married, (about74.4%). However, these re-sults do not prove that married individuals are more devout than
the single, divorced or widow ones, in fact the visit is made by individuals with a marital relationship, Table I.
Table I – Marital status
Absolute frequency % Marital status Single 35 17,9 Married 145 74,4 Divorced 10 5,1 Widow 5 2,6 Total 195 100 -rences in the distribution of respondents in terms of age groups. The festival encompasses a diversity of age groups, ranging
be -pondents between the 35 and the 44 years old represented by the majority, with 20.9% and immediately afterwards the popu-lation aged between 65 and 74 years old. It is mainly a majority of young adult visitors (about 63.2%) under 55, being the avera-ge aavera-ge of the individuals of 45.72 years old, with a standard de-The younger stratum - perhaps by the association that the re-ligious festivals have with devotion - feel little motivated to par-ticipate in the pilgrimage, possibly because they don’t share the same goals as those the festival provides or lack of participation habits, they wouldn’t place this in the spectrum of possible ou-tputs, table II.
Table II – Age of the Inquirees
Age Group Absolutefrequency %
Age 15 to 24 24 12,2 25 to 34 36 35 to 44 41 20,9 45 to 54 23 11,7 55 to 64 30 15,3 65 to 74 37 5 2,6 Total 196 100,0 Descriptive statistics N=196 x=45,72 s=
In terms of age as they are two independent and large samples we used the T-Student test to proceed to compare the average because the value of evidence obtained is less than this value of reference being the average age of the devotees who attended the festival of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios of 49.09 years old, Table III.
Table III – Age average
Devout of Senhora
N Average StandardDeviation Test statistic Admissibilityin evidence
Yes 154 49,09 15,790 t=5,646 p=0,000*
No 41 33,12 17,206
refer that the level of education of respondents is very hetero-geneous. The two most represented groups have very different levels of schooling which proves that the festival has an ability to attract the masses, given its sensory nature, capturing both the educated public and the less educated. Therefore, we have 27.5%
of individuals with a lower education on the one hand, between the 1st and the 4th grade, and another where the 22.3% of res-pondents reported owning middle and higher courses.
Table IV – Education and Occupation
Absolute Frequency % Level of Education Uneducated 9,3 1st to 4th grade 53 27,5 5th to 6th grade 26 13,5 7th to 9th grade 19 10th to 12th grade 34 17,6
High school or higher 43 22,3
Total 193 100 Occupation Primary sector 35 17,9 Secondary sector 13 6,6 Terciary sector 44,4 Domestic 30 15,3 Retired 10 5,1 Student 19 9,7 Unemployed 2 1,0 Total 196 100
In professional terms it is a population that registers a high degree of activity and active participation in employment. About -pation, in the remaining 30.3% housewives are included (15.3%), retired (5%) and students with a rate of 10%. The percentages of individuals who have an occupation are naturally higher among men than among women.
In economic terms, the services of a social nature, directly or indirectly dependent on the State/third sector, have a weight of 44.4% in the system of employment of the respondents, follo-wed by the primary sector, with 17.9%. The secondary sector occupies only a small residual percentage of the individuals with
-nufacturing sector is very low in rural areas and the primary sector has undergone several transformations over the sharp decline of agriculture, once the most important sector of economic activity. Nevertheless, being the majority of respondents from small ru-ral towns is very likely that many of them engaged in farming as a regime of pluriactivity. But in the inquiry they mentioned only the activity they considered to be their main occupation, under-valuing agriculture, which gives a limitation to this study. These results can be seen in Table IV.
-dents. To achieve this end we considered a set of regions - Nor-th, Central and South (We didn’t consider the NUTS regions de-the regional areas of de-the Algarve and Alentejo Interior didn’t any expression).
Graph II – Participation levels
Image A Image B
Graph II indicates that most respondents didn’t travel great dis-tances to worship the Virgin, residing in the adjacent area to the Sanctuary or in neighboring counties. Weigh, although some dis-crepancy in percentage terms standing two major regions: North and Centre, with about 47% - 40% with respect to origin and 46% - 40% with respect to place of residence. Only 13% of natural res-pondents and 14% of residents in the southern region have moved these data - the Senhora dos Remédios doesn’t drag masses of more
distant locations. However, without wanting to fall into apologe-tic considerations, neither in a simplisapologe-tic and reductionist view of reality, it seems that coming to the festival is less, as further south the individual is natural, as density maps II and III show.
Map II – Origins
Source: Own elaboration, based on Geographic Information System GIS – Geographic Information System
Map III – Residence
The density maps allow us to trace the mapping capacity of irradiation of the festival. The present results of this analysis can abstract in the graph II. In this sense, we found that the districts near the sanctuary are those with a higher irradiation of the festi-Vila Real and Braga, as well as the city of Porto, considered the second largest city in the country. In addition to the strategic lo-cation to the city of Lamego, people in these districts are there-fore potentially more familiar with the festival, and commitment,
to the extent that these regions’ dioceses provide, under a devo-’ dioceses provide, under a devo- dioceses provide, under a
devo-tive “shadow effect”, there is, individuals from these regions are strongly predisposed and accustomed to Marian worship taking into account the local mentality. However, in these dioceses there is a large collection of devotions, as well as a very valuable heri-tage of religious buildings: the case of Braga that although with a capacity comparable to the attractiveness of the district of Lisbon (15 of our respondents resided and/or were born in this district), roughly speaking, has been valued as a center of tourist attraction capable of international irradiation. In fact, social reality cannot be cut of phase of the spiritual side as it is impossible to sepa-rate one reality from the other, without realizing their connection.
However, we believe that the festival will not have conditions that make it so especially attractive to visitors from more distant inter-regional/national locations, however it is expected that it may become a national hub of irradiation, since it has boundless or valued. Hopefully one day, doing this work, it will attract new audiences and ascend to a higher category.
In fact, if it is to a district-wide scale that the festival raises the larger number of people, what are the factors that contribute to the construction of religious its memory and motivate the indi-vidual to go to the pilgrimage?
We believe that there are certain variables depending on each other, taking into account the values of evidence obtained in the
chi-square test, which prove that the origins of the respondent
Table V- Birthplace variable
Place of Birth
Chi-square test
North Centre South
promise
Yes 32 (40,5%) 3 (11,5%)
x2
No 47 (59,5%)
Reason for the promise Disease 21 (95,5%) 2 (100%) NR School Results 0 1 (2,4%) 0 Military Service 0 1 (2,4%) 0 Success 1 (4,5%) 5 (11,9%) 0 Faith or cult Yes 39 (49,4%) 54 (59,3%) x2 = 4,073; g.l.== 2; p= 0,13NS No 40 (50,6%) 37 (40,7%) 16 (61,5%) Visiting rela-tives or friends Yes 15 (19%) 3 (3,3%) 3 (11%) x2= 10,904; g.l.= 2; p= 0,004* No Meeting new places and people Yes 0 0 5 (19,2%) NR No 79 (100%) 91 (100%) Material Heritage Yes 1 (1,1%) 7 (26,9%) x2 No 76 (96,2%) 19 (73,1%) Immaterial Heritage Yes 1 (1,3%) 0 NR No 91 (100%) 16 (61,5%) Procession Yes 43 (54,4%) 39 (42,9%) 9 (34,6%) x2 NS No 36 (45,6%) 52 (57,1%) 17 (65,4%) Leisure and entertainment Yes 16 (17,6%) 2 (7,7%) x2 NS No 72 (91,1%) 24 (92,3%)
individuals born in the central region are the ones who visit the the southern region. These last ones go to the festival, but above all they enjoy visiting relatives or friends, as well as the respon-dents from the north.
coming to the festival, repositioning the respondents in the Por-tuguese cultural-historical context. We can only show that many of these respondents have lived a kind of confessional state si-tuation, in which the attitudes of political-institutional order ac-companied their religious convictions. If this is an obvious and consistent conclusion with the fundamental objectives of the festive practice, that is, individuals hold-up in front of the Virgin which arouses their attention without ambition and / or need to deepen the religious knowledge, but as a matter of civic partici-pation. Individuals from the more distant districts do not feel this need because they are not devotees of the Virgem dos Remédios, depriving before the Virgin of their hometowns.
The methodology was based on an intensive qualitative com-ponent, which was based on the survey-interview in which indi-viduals had to justify some of their answers giving them the op-motivations, expectations, perceptions, emotions and assessments of the festival and worship. The technique required accuracy, a logical observation, taking into account the impartiality that can motivate an always complex in terms of information exchange interview situation. Hence, we took into account its context at the time of analysis, since the interaction between interviewer and interviewee can create some effects conditioning the responses given by the latter, that is, the interviewer cannot be completely neutral nor the respondent is absolutely spontaneous. Moreover, as Madureira Pinto advocates moving from sociological and
epis-temological acquisitions that science is produced in a social con-text, by social workers and through social processes, it is possible to achieve increasingly demanding levels of rationality, objectivity limits is possible to regulate them, learning how to better control meaning and content and not save the analysis of concrete insti-(Madureira Pinto 2001). Hence, a survey of this kind has no ob-jective course of representativeness. It was intended above all to capture subjectivities the natural logic that must be considered as a means to go beyond the usual statistical tools to grasp what is sought is to understand and interpret the experiences of visit/ festival, the meaning attributed to the visit/festival, the mediation and the ways of worship.
Through the information gathered, it was possible to detect some dimensions of the context of the visit, especially the di-fferent motivations and intentions of those seeking the festival taking into account the heterogeneous public. Being sure that the public brings a diversity of expectations, the fruition of faith (52.6%) and Procession (46.4%) were the most cited hypotheses. In addition to these reasons, other reasons were mentioned - to being the coming to the festival a program and clearly framed in the life and precepts of Christian morality. That is, these players represent a range of Portuguese people who went to the festival with the urgency of achieving spiritual graces.
Next, we wanted to understand that what were the reasons for this extraordinary investment that could be translated into
per -tion to the illness of themselves or relatives. Soon after, but with a much lower value, individuals aim to great success in academic achievement, and success in the military service, in third place.
This leads us to believe that the devotee seeks a religion in the multifunctional feature, with a view to achieve health and suc-cess, and short-cutting the disastrous fragile situation in which they are. Nevertheless, there are other reasons for the visit, such as visiting relatives and friends (10.7% of respondents). This component has acquired a great relevance in the current tourism - tourism reunion (Georges Cazes and Francoise Potir 1996). The enjoyment of the landscape and experience the material and/or immaterial heritage in the region are other motivations for the 11.2% respondents to visit the festival. In this context it should be interpreted in the interference of the spiritual in the cultural, and vice-versa being that both the religious tourism and the cul-tural tourism can motivate the coming to the festival. Of course, will, one or another particular element or any interest in concre-te that motivaconcre-tes the coming, but the simple desire of evasion and willingness to revive the festival with its colorful movement, imbuing themselves in the local atmosphere and enjoying a few days of rest. These results are presented in Table VI.
At the time of deciding on a trip to the festival there are some attributes to which participants attach more importance and will be the focus of one analysis at this point. Therefore, they were
asked to rank their answers in a Lickert type scale – from noth-– from noth- from
noth-ing important to very important (1-4), with the possibility of an-swering that they had no opinion (0). These results are presented in Table VIII. For all factors the average and the standard devia-excluded the answers “no opinion” on each factor. Note that, in any of the factors there is a great predominance of responses in the categories important and very important being the religious motives/devotion the most important choice of visitors, when they decided to travel. The nature / landscape and tourism in rural areas were categorized as very important by over 50% of visitors. Several other reasons express a positive evaluation, dis-tinguishing essentially all the values.
Table VI - Reasons for participation in the festival Absolute Frequency % of the promise Yes 44,9 No 55,1 Total 196 100 Reason for the promise
Personal or relative’s illness 75 90,4
School results 1 1,2 Military service 1 1,2 Professional success 6 7,2 Total 100 Faith or cult Yes 103 52,6 No 93 47,4 Total 196 100 Visiting relatives or friends Yes 21 10,7 No 175 Total 196 100
Meet new places and people Yes 5 2,6 No 191 97,4 Total 196 100 Material Heritage Yes 11 5,6 No 94,4 Total 196 100 Immaterial Heritage Yes 11 5,6 No 94,4 Total 196 100 Procession Yes 91 46,4 No 105 53,6 Total 196 100
Leisure and enter-tainment
Yes 25
No 171
Table VII - Importance given to each factor when choosing this destination
Not important (1) Little important (2) Important (3) Very important (4) No opinion (0) N Average (standard deviation) Religious motiva-tions / Devotion 2 2 30 156 6 196 3,79 (0,25) Craft / Arts and Traditions 3 13 73 195 3,39 (0,49) Alto Douro Wine Region (World Heritage) 0 33 64 17 196 3,27(0,57) Amusement / Entertainment 7 37 63 65 24 196 (0,75) Gastronomy 6 37 55 77 21 196 3,16(0,77) of the target 2 15 72 20 196 3,30 (0,45) Historical
and cultural heritage 2 77 95 14 196
3,46 (0,40) Nature / Landscape 1 5 66 110 14 196 3,57(0,34) Rural tourism 1 7 69 100 19 196 3,51 (0,36) Accommodation capacity 2 13 75 196 3,33 (0,44) Then we wanted to know if the age and sex factors affect the different experiences of socialization, encouraging the visitor to go to the festival. For this we used the Chi-square test to study the Student t-test and Mann-Whitney test for the age question, there are several dependency relationships between the, the age and the religious motivations of the respondents. Thus, for 61.3% of women the religious factors are the main reason for coming to the festival, while for men this was only a valid reason in 42.2%
thus 45.3% of women and 44.4% men came to the festival and -men, as the historiography has pointed out.
The results of promise tend to increase with age and especially in the elderly, with an average age of 51.3 years old, those who make promises because of illness while the younger hope they -gin according to the experiences and expectations that they have or aim for in life or on more technical aspects involved in their conception.
Among the various events of a religious nature the Procissão do Triunfo distinguishes itself by its spectacle, more popular among men and women, chose by 56.7% and 37.7% respectively, with an average of age of 47. The Mann-Whitney test also allows us the sense that respondents under the age of 30 give more importan-ce to programs for recreation and socializing, as well as meeting new places and people, while respondents with ages ranging from 30-35 years are more sensitive to cultural and heritage issues. (For the purposes of promise and meeting new people and places we couldn’t perform the chi-square test of independence due to the non-validation of the assumptions of applicability).
Table VII - Gender Variable Gender Chi-square test Male Female of the promise Yes 40 (44,4%) x2= 0,014; g.l.= 1; p= 0,906NS No 50 (55,6%)
Reason for the promise Disease 36 (97,3%) NR School results 0 1 (2,2%) Military serv-ice 1 (2,7%) 0 Success 0 6 (13%) Faith or cult Yes 65 (61,3%) x2= 6,375; g.l.= 1; p= 0,012** No Visiting relatives or friends Yes 14 (13,2%) x2 NS No Meet new places
and people
Yes 0 5 (4,7%)
NR
No 90 (100%) 101 (95,3%)
Material Heritage Yes 11 (12,2%) 0 x2= 11,516; g.l.= 1; p= 0,001*
No 106 (100%)
Immaterial Heritage Yes 9 (10%) 2 (1,9%) x2= 4,614; g.l.= 1; p= 0,032**
No Procession Yes 51 (56,7%) 40 (37,7%) x2= 6,273; g.l.= 1; p= 0,012** No 39 (43,3%) 66 (62,3%) Leisure and entertainment Yes x2 No 97 (91,5%)
Table VIII - Age Variable Age T-Student or Mann-Whitney Test N Average Standard deviation of the promise Yes 15,727 t = 2,95; p= 0,004* No 42,50 Reason for the promise
Disease 75 51,36 NT School results 1 -Military service 1 60 -Success 6 5,307 Faith or cult Yes 103 46,71 15,745 NS No 93 44,63 Visiting relatives or friends Yes 21 50,10 17,294 MW = 1546; p= 0,235NS No 175 45,20 17,257
Meet new places and people Yes 5 22 -NT No 191 46,35 17,07 Material Her-itage Yes 11 32,55 17,963 No 46,51 16,972 Imaterial Her-itage Yes 11 10,113 MW = 367; p= 0,000* No 46,75 17,092 Procession Yes 91 47,20 16,770 NS No 105 44,45 17,697
Leisure and en-tertainment
Yes 25
MW = 771; p= 0,000*
No 71 16,940
It is therefore appropriate to compare the motivations for co-ming to the party according to the male/female genders. From the results obtained by the T-Student test, we conclude that there
men give more importance than women to crafts / arts and tra-ditions. This interest is a crucial phase in which the populations of rural communities have been declining and their lifestyles tend to disappear. Therefore, the social and artistic events recognized the importance given to its originality and interest of the aesthe-tic point of view or reunion with the origins, such as handicrafts, cooperage, basketry, pottery, pack-saddle shops and tin-smith’s shop, as well as Lazarim masks, hand-carved wood, are one of the most typical and unique expressions of local crafts and one of its most interesting aspects.
The men also give much importance to the fact that the Alto
Table IX - Importance given to the motivations vs. male/female genres
Importance (range 1-4)
T-Student Test
Gender N Average Standard deviation
Religious moti-vations
Male 90 3,67
t = - 0,107; p= 0,915NS
Female 106
Craft / Arts and Traditions Male 90 3,30 1,116 t = 2,593; p= 0,010** Female 106 1,245 Alto Douro Wine Region (World Heritage) Male 90 3,21 1,096 t = 2,467; p= 0,014** Female 106 1,206 Amusement / Entertainment Male 90 1,302 Female 106 2,55 Gastronomy Male 90 2,96 1,253 NS Female 106 2,71 1,302 Cultural spe-target Male 90 3,00 NS Female 106 2,93 1,165 Historical and cultural heritage Male 90 NS Female 106 3,15 Nature / Landscape Male 90 3,42 NS Female 106 3,22 1,227
Rural tourism Male 90 3,29 0,974 t = 1,253; p= 0,212NS
Female 106 1,343 Accommodation capacity Male 90 0,936 t = 2,943; p= 0,004* Female 106
We know today that the importance given to the factors rela-ted to the visit is educational, so we crossed this variable with the different factors in order to draw some descriptive conclusions in from tourists, and ultimately guide the strategic management in terms of behavior (motivations, interests, habits and preferences)
each factor would be an ANOVA one. But since there is no nor-mality of the dependent variable (degree of importance) or the homogeneity of variances we had to resort to the Kruskall-Wallis, subsequently comparing the average of the orders as described by Maroco (2007).
of the factors, as well as the statistic and the value obtained in the -those statistically different. The reading of this table should be made taking into account that, for example, SI differs from 1-4, logically 1-4 also differs from SI, but to avoid the duplication of -and therefore there is no column for higher education (M/HE). -fferences for all the factors, regarding to the different educatio-nal background, for every test values obtained are less than 1%. With the exception of individuals with 10-12 grade, all other age groups give notorious importance to religious motivations. The interest in learning and preserving the crafts / arts and tra-ditions is also transverse to all age groups except, once again, for individuals with the 10-12 grade. The enjoyment of cultural heritage, especially the importance attached to the Alto Douro Wine Region as a World Heritage Site covers a wide range of ages. We justify this data because it is a more “cultural” issue and not as implied in relation to income level of learning - is less
le-arning and more understanding. Nevertheless, we were pleasan-tly surprised by the degree of importance given to the issue by respondents with low educational capital. We point out the jus-the town awarded by UNESCO and exult in jus-the title of World Heritage expecting that this recognition will value their territory -nous resources, thus debunking the idea that this recognition “is one thing and for elites.” The traditional festive entertainments, such as amusement and entertainment were also major focus for all age groups perhaps because the fun is a key ingredient of the and integrate all social groups in the same order and in the same spirit by going to the fantastic and fanciful, leaving them spell-bound before the shining spaces of the city. The tourist or visi-tor to the rural asks for a direct contact with the simple country life, including the authenticity of social relationships, the feeling of solidarity and mutual assistance in daily activities (Leal, 2001), maybe this is the reason they gave great importance to the visitor’s and cultural heritage, as well as Nature and Landscape. With its creation of tourism in rural areas it was intended to protect and enhance the cultural heritage, through the recovery of regional architecture and contribute to improving the quality of life of rural populations, through a possible additional income (Cunha 2001), which is why is strange that this age group who give less importance to the rural tourism and accommodation capacity are
those exactly with very low levels of education, between the 5-6th
grade as well as individuals with the 10-12th grade, as that this
would be an opportunity to redevelop and revitalize rural areas where they live in. Nevertheless, these results can be explained by the fact that, although the region has an appetite for this type of tourism development to be successful, and in fact the according to Kastenholz (2003) the opportunities that rural tourism makes to the local and regional development have been much empha-sized in the academic and political discourse, raising sometimes
exaggerated expectations, leading to the native and locals feeling disappointed with this form of development. Anyhow, every other group of respondents have the perception that this form of de-velopment provides both the economic and social balance they ambition and a range of accommodation, individual quality, with -portant variable in choosing a destination thus recognizing that the rural tourism and accommodation capacity can be an engine of social, economic and environmental development, designing -spondent’s decision on the choice of his destination - festival, whether by devotion, or just for a holiday or short-break. There-fore, the challenges facing the organization of the festival are to assure the public on the one hand, and, second, diversify and de-velop new ways of attracting and creating new products adjusted to the real needs of each segment.
However, we admit that these results are still very preliminary and it is unwise to deduce any more consistent conclusion. Thus, in future studies would be appropriate to proceed to a subsequent segmentation or, commonly referred to as Post Hoc Segmentation, crossing the obtained results
through the motivations, interests, habits and preferences, with cutting sociodemographic variables, based on multivaried meth-odologies. Through this intersection it would be possible to ac-cess more detailed information/results and more robust analyzes.
Table X - Kruskall-Wallis test for differences between the importance Factors Little important (2) Important (3) Very important (4) No opinion (0) N Average (standard deviation) HA M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M9 M10 SI 130,17 116,22 113,97 126,11 1-4º 104,92 102,66 95,97 101,39 103,44 100,62 96,31 101,22 101,03 5-6º 96,27 70,63 66,31 69,10 74,42 7-9º 107,37 74,61 76,37 71,24 106,74 99,24 111,74 94,55 10-12º 74,16 71,99 69,91 75,29 62,16 72,49 CM/S 104,23 112,10 101,50 113,07 116,45 119,31 113,97 ET 22,051 24,054 19,450 21,154 22,755 21,009 23,375 gl 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 VP 0,019** 0,001* 0,000* 0,002* 0,001* 0,000* 0,000* 0,001* 0,000* 0,000* Legend: M1 – Religious motivations M2 – Crafts / Arts and Traditions
M3 – Alto Douro Wine Region (World Heritage) M4 – Amusement / Entertainment
M5 – Gastronomy
M7 – Historical and cultural heritage M9 – Rural tourism
Table XI - Multiple comparisons between orders’ average SI 1-4 5-6 7-9 10-12 M1 10-12 10-12 CM/S M2 7-9 10-12 7-9 10-12 CM/S CM/S CM/S M3 1-4 5-6 7-9 10-12 7-9 CM/S CM/S M4 sll 10-12 CM/S CM/S M5 5-6 7-9 10-12 7-9 10-12 M6 1-4 5-6 7-9 10-12 10-12 CM/S CM/S M7 5-6 7-9 10-12 5-6 10-12 CM/S 7-9 CM/S CM/S 5-6 5-6 7-9 CM/S 10-12 CM/S M9 5-6 10-12 5-6 10-12 7-9 CM/S 10-12 CM/S M10 5-6 10-12 5-6 10-12 CM/S CM/S Legend: M1 – Religious motivations M2 – Crafts / Arts and Traditions
M3 – Alto Douro Wine Region (World Heritage) M4 – Amusement / Entertainment
M5 – Gastronomy
M7 – Historical and cultural heritage M9 – Rural tourism
Travel and expenses
By moving to the festival or the sanctuary, the respondents have implemented a plan for organizing the trip individually or in groups (Cunha, 1997), so we wanted to know with whom they made the visit, the resources they used and what the detours they in the company of family/relatives and 13.5% in the company of friends, 2.6% chose the company their spouse/companion and further 1.6% went alone. The weight of individual trips and trips outside the family bounds was very residual. The groups formed by the nuclear family were composed by the couple and its chil-dren, or an element of parental (father or mother) and chilchil-dren, or by grandparents. In some cases the children are replaced by nieces or nephews in addition to the group and sometimes, frien-ds. Indeed, these results seem to indicate that the sanctuary mo-vement and participation in religious ceremonies involve a so-cial function being the opportunity to travel a family tradition or perhaps a family time of exploration and interaction.
the visit in an organized manner. Nevertheless, there are some -zed the trip through the parish, while 23.1% used a travel agency. Individuals who organized the trip privately represent 21.2% of the sample. The means of transport chosen by most respondents was the car, about 72.4%, and 26.5% chose the bus and only 1% went on a motorcycle.
It is important to us now to know whether the respondents have moved purposefully to the festival not having made any de-tour or rather took the opportunity to meet and visit the region and / or other places with tourist potential. As the surrounding area of study, is a historical-cultural area with many iconic tou-rist and cultural events, we put in the questionnaire three diffe-the Shrine of Nossa Senhora da Lapa, in order to understand diffe-the relationship between these places and the festival.
had no desire in visiting other places, perhaps because the par-ticipation in the festival overlaid a “kinetic” one-direction goal,
-ristic, cultural or religious attractions. This group seeks, above all, to know the area and enjoy with the family, spending time in a pleasant way. In terms of places visited two sites clearly emer-Wine Region. However, we admit that we can take these values together once the ruler of the city and the region of Alto Douro Shrine of Nossa Senhora da Lapa.
But why did respondents choose to visit this or that place? It seem to us that, in most cases, the conditions to the visits are in-the historical and cultural heritage, biodiversity, landscape and in-the
-riety with the award of World Heritage in 2001.
-ments - according to the time available, as well as intentions and motivations, personal interests and / or professional life trajectory -ding to factors related to his training. It seems that the number hence explaining the fact that they have a different behavior from those who are accustomed to the place, having a natural desire to know the area. Nevertheless, even for these, the festival continues to be the “driving force” of coming to the region on September -ral and tourist destination with an integrated offering containing information about the characteristics and regional peculiarities, informing visitors about the region, including the religious
festi-The cost of travel is the amount paid to travel the distance from the point of departure/origin of the respondent to his/her
origin we don’t understand the place of habitual residence, but the place where the respondent said he was when he took the decision to travel, having as a main goal to reach the shrine and the celebration. This option was taken as a way to circumvent the problems with the multiple destinations. The majority of respon-dents referenced fuel expenditure, spending on average 37.36 eu-ros, and food expenses, having spent about 55.17 eueu-ros, as the main expenditure. Of the 196 respondents, 16 had accommoda-tion costs spending an average of 143.44 euros.
Table XII - Characteristics of travel to the pilgrimage
Absolute frequency %
Whom went to the pilgrimage with
Companion 5 2,6 Relative 159 Friends 26 13,5 Alone 3 1,6 Total 193 100 Organized visit By the parish 29
By the travel agency 12 23,1
By privates 12 21,2 Total 52 100 Transportation Car 142 72,4 Bus 52 26,5 Motorcycle 2 1 Total 196 100
Did any detours?
No 171 Yes 25 Total 196 100 Which detours? 12 Douro Vinhateiro 11 44,0 Senhora da Lapa 2 Total 25 100
expen-Table XIII – Travelling expenses
Had expenses?
Yes 93,9
No 12 6,1
Total 196 100
It should be also noted that the 42 individuals who visited the pilgrimage showed expenditure on organized bus tickets, spending on average 15.52 euros. For public transport we consider the cost of travel equal to the cost of paid tickets. Costs were also presen-ted with purchases, whose average was 30.25 euros and attrac-tions, having spent 12.32 euros. Nevertheless, we emphasize that the greatest detours were recorded in the case of fuel expenses, accommodation, food and drinks and even in shopping. In ter-ms of total expenditures made by each respondent it has a range standard deviation of 143.29. It deserves particular attention the maximum value of the expenditure recorded corresponds to the individuals who were on holiday and tend to have a longer stay and spend more throughout their trip.
Table XIV - Cost of travel (descriptive statistics)
U.m.: €
N Minimum Maximum Average Standarddeviation
Fuel expenses
(private transport) 5,00 150,00 37,36 27,33
Tickets
(public transport) 42 4,00 40,00 15,52
Accomodation 16 20,00 200,00 143,44
Food and drinks 151 5,00 200,00 55,17 55,10
Shopping 5,00 200,00 30,25 47,71
Expenses attractions 56 5,00 30,00 12,32 6,74
Total expenses 5,00 760,00 143,29
The remaining residence time in the festival is a dependent va-to remain in the place. Most people reported being of passing
through or dedicate one day to the pilgrimage, but it may have been some ambiguity in these responses and individuals who were reported to be passing through in fact dedicated the day to the festival. Given these results, we conclude that most of the visits, -volve overnight, falling into the excursions’ category or a hiking one-day trip, that corresponds to the tourism concept itself, re-presenting 11% of respondents. Despite these numbers, though tiny, they eventually escape from formal accommodation, as the-se movements were motivated by the simple desire to visit family and friends - tourism reunion (Cazes, Potier 1996). These results
Table XV - Time spent at the pilgrimage
Absolute frequency % Days Passing through 29,9 1 day 115 59,3 2 days 6 3,1 4 days 13 6,7 More 4 days 2 1,0 Total 194 100
The length of participation/visit to the pilgrimage variable is year. One comment results prima facie in a large percentage of individuals (41.4%) with a loyalty to the festival, participating an-nually, and 30.9% repeated the visit every other year – in periods relationship with the religious beliefs and may even deduce to small mistakes, as we do not know if the reiteration of the indi-is, as we had seen previously the target audience of the festival consists in large part of local devotees, and the geographic appro-ach could trigger more frequent visits. Moreover, interest in the topic and / or experience and level of positive satisfaction may have motivated the respondent to repeat the visit, or the fact that
the people are proud of one of its festive icons, with no religious -thermore, these data had been asserted (in the previous section) with the participation of the people in the festival. In fact, the participation in the festival is transversal to all kinds of audien-ces, that is, for those admitting to be a devotee of Nossa Senhora to participate in the fun. The remaining approximately 27.7% of the opportunity to travel to the festival. This group of respon-dents may or may not, repeat visits and/or being re-framed in an organized tour, depending on the impact of positive / negative experience that it had on them.
Table XVI - Attendance and participation in the feast
Absolute frequency % How long does
the feast exist?
First time 53 27,7
Every year 79 41,4
Every other year 59 30,9
Total 191 100
First time in the region?
Yes 32 16,5
No 162
Total 194 100
Then we wanted to know if age is somehow connected with the participation / visit to the pilgrimage. One of the questions we immediately asked was if there were more likely ages to visit -rage age in each of the three categories above, by analysis of
va -rences in the age of the pilgrims with older respondents partici-pating more often each year, being in average 54.6, while the ones participating every other year are 44, with an average age of 33.3.
CONCLUSION
is shaping the decision to travel. The remaining time in the pro-cession is, for most of respondents less than 24 hours. We also found that the sanctuary reveals several potential tourist enjoy-ments, not being recognized by most respondents. The tourist/ believer has of his/her revenue to the service of faith, enabling architectures and sacred spaces to gain new attractiveness, contri-buting to the prosperity of the local community Buhalis (1999). opportunity for realization of man, for understanding between cultures and traditions, before being considered a danger to the faith. Therefore, only a multi-functional perspective covering all characters - the local people, the members of the Church and the Brotherhood, the effective guardians and conservators of local and regional heritage and tourism operators - create a sustainable framework in perfect respect to the heritage structure, the emo-tional, religious and touristic monument. To this end, we enhan -provement of infrastructure, diversify beyond animation and to increase the supply of quality accommodation and support ser-vices, including the entertainment.
Nevertheless, the space management faces many problems, of which we enhance the economic stagnation caused by the deple-tion of the economic sector in the region with the subsequent decrease in donations, a very conservative legal-institutional and a progressive aging of the members of the Diocese of Lamego protects the sanctuary.
The opening of the sanctuary to the surrounding community is a sine qua none for the valuation of the space and awareness by the Church and the Brotherhood of the need to program the of this activity.
The church should set an example to the community and edu-cate their audiences to this new reality, to which also, only now the Church/Diocese and Brotherhood begin to awaken repairing the valences believer/cult and visitor/tourism, so as to give new areas and functions of "fair use", to the religious site.
The Brotherhood should enhance the creation of trails built in "pathways of time and space," taking advantage of the tech-nical and historical diversity of access and its landscape, accor-ding to the point 3, principle 3 of the Carta do Turismo Cultural. We recall that, in the town of Lamego there are still stretches of preserved Roman roads, in addition to one of the paths of San-tiago and a Pombal track. Only in this way we rebuild this space, reversing the trends that currently score less positive.
REFERENCES
Buhalis, D. (1999). Limits of Tourism Development in Peripheral Des-tinations: Problems and Challenges. Tourism Management. University of 16(2), p. 13.
Carta Internacional de Turismo Cultural- United Nations Educational, Lages M. (2000) A religiosidade popular portuguesa na segunda metade
do Turismo PENT – Lisboa: Turismo de Portugal, Lisboa. Silabo. Lisboa.
Ge-Submitted: 15th October, 2011 Accepted: 24th April, 2012
